Chester Cathedral is the cathedral of the Diocese of Chester in the city of Chester, in the county of Cheshire. The cathedral, former church of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Verburgi, dedicated to Christ and the Holy Virgin Mary.
It is believed that the Christian Basilica of St Peter and St Paul existed on this site as far back as Roman times. In favour of this is the fact that under the Saxons the existing chapel of St Peter was renamed in honour of St Verburga. In the tenth century the saint's remains were transferred to Chester, and the church became the site of her tomb.
A Benedictine abbey was founded here in 1093 and the oldest surviving buildings date from the 10th century. The church of the abbey and the cathedral church at that time was the church of St John the Baptist, then the episcopal cathedra was moved to neighbouring Coventry.
In the 16th century, during the reforms of King Henry VIII, the monastery was dissolved, and the the tomb of St Verburga was desecrated. However, in 1541, by order of Henry VIII the abbey became a cathedral of the Anglican Church, and the last abbot of St Verburga's of St Verburgh's Abbey, Thomas Clarke, became the first abbot of the cathedral, which was already named as the Cathedral of Christ and St Mary the Virgin.
There is little Norman masonry in the cathedral, with most of the building is built in the Early and Perpendicular Gothic style, the west porch in the Tudor style. Extensive restoration work was carried out in the 19th century, in the 20th the main efforts were directed towards the preservation of the cathedral.
The cathedral is built of red sandstone. This stone is an excellent material for carver, but is easily eroded by rain and wind. Chester Cathedral is among those cathedrals in Great Britain which have undergone the some of the most significant restoration work in Britain.
With little trace of the early buildings surviving, and the towers of the west wing never having been were built, the architecture of the cathedral contains practically no mixture of the various styles and that is so characteristic of other major cathedrals in Great Britain, and this makes Chester Cathedral unique in its kind.
The cathedral was badly damaged by Parliamentary troops during the Civil War, and its stained glass windows are mostly 19th century, as is the organ. The cathedral houses an antique gold and silver church utensils from the 17th and 18th centuries. Also here you can beautiful mosaic floors and marvellous examples of wood carvings. The library of the cathedral dates back to the time of the Abbey of St Verburgi, and is open to research and organised visits, but some valuable books have been moved to special vaults.
The decision to build the bell tower was taken in 1969. The oldest bells were cast in 1606 and 1626, the newest in 1973. Curiously, the last free-standing bell tower was built in Britain in the 15th century at Chichester Cathedral.
